Om å bevitne systematisk vold og straffrihet – Martha Soto Gallos arkiv for sin forsvunne bror og Sara Uribes Antígona González

Abstract

The article discusses the possibilities for finding words for and conveying trauma within a social and political context where the history of what happened is also at risk of disappearing. By comparing two different accounts of enforced disappearance – the Colombian Martha Soto Gallo’s archive for her missing brother and the Mexican literary text Antígona González (Uribe, 2012/2021) – we explore how the texts describe and move beyond the mechanisms of the modern lie and the tendency of trauma towards silencing. The study’s theoretical base is psychoanalytic trauma theory and testimony theory. We also engage in dialogue with Hanna Arendt’s thinking. The archive shows a repetitive pattern; the tireless search for an answer and the answers that never materialise or that pretend to be answers. We discuss how the figurative language of literature can shed light on the silences in the archive. The article reflects on the relationship between the disappeared and the trauma survivor. In dialogue with Carruth’s (2016) concept of traumatic awakenings, we suggest that the ethical imperative – as a result of witnessing severe traumatic experience – can be an engine for political activism, as it appears here in the survivors’ documentation practices. Keywords: trauma, enforced disappearance, psychoanalysis, testimony, Antígona González